Chapter 63: Encountering the Heterophonic Cry (1)

Done! Li Guanqi clenched his fists. "Nailed it!"

Three sets of cards, plus one side deck, totaling two hundred and forty-five cards, had all been successfully registered.

Only two cards failed to register: [Underworld Goddess of the Closed World] and [Calamity Star Ty-phon]. When attempting to register these two cards, the system would turn a stark white and then snap back to the previous screen.

But it didn't matter!

All the little buddies were successfully registered!

He pocketed a set of [Fiendsmith Yubel] and felt a spring in his step, walking as if riding the wind.

He needed to find someone to duel with immediately and test just how deep the waters of the metaverse dueling scene were.

Li Guanqi picked up a brisk pace, breaking into a light jog all the way into the Dueling Arena. The moment he stepped inside, his attention was instantly captured by a gigantic screen that had suddenly appeared before him.

The screen towered into the clouds, resembling a colossal wall standing between heaven and earth, radiating a dazzling brilliance.

[August 1067 Undefeated King of Games Event, Officially Begins!]

A striking line of large characters gleamed at the front of the screen. Directly beneath this text, the screen displayed a densely packed leaderboard, crowded with countless IDs and node numbers.

The crowd below surged like a tidal wave, lifting their heads and pointing at the big screen while chattering excitedly.

"Do you think Zhong will take the crown again this season?"

"The first match has barely started, what's the rush?"

"I'd rather watch Teacher Shangyu stir up some fun."

"Is Black Bird still pulling off any crazy stunts?"

"In the top one thousand IDs, there are only twenty Node 14s. As expected of us, chillingly cool."

"Undefeated King of Games?" Li Guanqi frowned, checking out the details of the event.

Achieving an undefeated King of Games run was extremely difficult on Earth. For one, the game didn't have a massive player base, and the upper ladders were heavily saturated by hardcore pros. Moreover, starting hands and card draws were purely randomized, making an undefeated run practically impossible—at least, he had never heard of it happening.

However, in Biantana, neither of these problems existed.

The player base was sufficiently large, the shallow waters of the rookie pools were deep, and starting hands and card draws were influenced by spiritual resonance and tactical command. Charging all the way to an undefeated King of Games without a single loss was by no means a difficult task.

"The prize is only for the very first undefeated king?"

After reading through the event details, Li Guanqi felt a bit troubled. The rewards were extremely alluring; for the prestige-driven players, there were honorary titles; for the appearance-driven players, there were custom skins; and for the resource-driven players, there were three million gold points.

The Blasphemous Card could reduce deck-building costs by 90%, but even the remaining 10% material fee—amounting to three hundred thousand—was more than he currently had, not to mention the margin of error involved in card crafting.

If he could secure that three million, the material funds should be more than enough.

Yet, he faced a massive disadvantage: he had to start climbing from the absolute bottom as a rookie!

The leaderboard was filled exclusively with Platinum V players, clearly the result of the previous season's Duel King rank reset. These players held a huge advantage; climbing from Platinum V to the King rank required only a hundred consecutive wins.

Meanwhile, a rookie climbing to the King rank required two hundred consecutive wins!

The good news was that to increase the difficulty of achieving an undefeated King rank, the League introduced [Surprise Double Dueling] at the Legend tier. This drastically reduced the efficiency of an undefeated run because no matter how strong you were, you couldn't guarantee your teammate would be the same.

Based on past experience, the first undefeated king would not emerge until thirty or forty hours later.

Starting the climb from the rookie rank still gave him a chance to pull off a comeback.

"Here I come, you scoundrels in front!"

Li Guanqi clicked the ranked matchmaking button.

[First-Time Matchmaking]
[Please complete your duel settings]
[Enable immersive experience?]

"Yes."

[Please set the real physical sensation percentage.]

"Fifty... percent."

[Please set the sanity rate warning threshold.]

"Sixty percent."

[Please confirm your deck.]

"Confirmed."

[Settings complete.]
[Please use duels to bring smiles.]
[Matchmaking in progress...]
...

Sixth-level Fortress - Banyeting, Tianchen Entertainment 24th Floor, Holy Music Idol Group Live Broadcast Room.

"Family!" After suffering a second-of-defeat wipeout in her very first match, female streamer An Xixi shamelessly yelled to her chat viewers, "We are continuing our sprint for the undefeated King of Games!"

"Transform—!"

As she spoke, she swiftly switched her game account, her eyes brimming with confidence.

In reality, despite Biantana's massive dueling population and the spiritual resonance of the cards, clearing the game without a single defeat was still exceedingly difficult. Most past undefeated kings used smurf accounts; the higher a user's Eisen clearance authority, the more smurf accounts they were allowed to open.

The bullet comments in the chat were already accustomed to her account-switching antics.

"You looked so pathetic when you got wiped out in a second, streamer, but your account-switching moves were genuinely cool."

"Xixi is still giggling away!"

"Go for it, Xixi, charge forward at full speed!"

"Everyone's rushing for an undefeated run, and you choked in the first match?"

"Your first match was against Teacher Shangyu, whose full-resistance Winged Rebirth is as monstrous as a beast. You gave it your all and couldn't win."

"If the streamer can go ten wins without dying once, I'll drop ten thousand Kuribohs!"

Seeing this bullet comment, An Xixi's eyes lit up. "This family member better not go back on their word, oh."

Live stream gifts in Biantana were all named after hand-trap monsters, with Kuriboh being at the very bottom tier, worth one gold point each.

"La~ la~ la~"

An Xixi hummed a melody while waiting for the account switch to complete.

[Ding——]

[Your current rank is - Rookie]

As soon as the chat saw this rank, they were instantly displeased.

"Wow, how utterly shameless."

"The boss's face is about to turn black."

"You promised a ten-game winning streak, and you're starting from the rookie tier? The streamer sure knows how to play with words."

"All shame is truly lost."

"You have a Platinum account and you don't switch to it, instead picking a rookie account. You just scammed another boss."

"Xixi is still giggling away!"

An Xixi defended herself, "I'm just heading back to the rookie tier to warm up, what's wrong with that?!"

"Win ten games to warm up and then immediately switch to your Platinum account."

Her little scheme was laid bare right in front of the boss.

[Thump——]

[Matchmaking complete]

With a resonant chime, An Xixi's smile returned. "Here we go, here we go."

The chat comments flooded the screen.

"Randomly selecting an unlucky rookie to brutally beat up."

"Boring, does the streamer only play in these kinds of lobbies?"

"Look at you, An Xixi, actually daring to play in a rookie lobby."

"Hard to say, what if the opponent is also a reincarnation monster?"

[This match is]
[A Tutorial Match]

A tutorial match meant that one of the players had not played a single duel yet—a rookie among rookies, with no hidden matchmaking rating or historical match records. The debut battle focused primarily on receiving guidance, and defeats did not deduct points.

"Ooh, a pure rookie," An Xixi said with surprise.

A normal rookie would usually play a few AI or casual matches before entering ranked play; matches like this didn't count as tutorial matches. She hadn't expected a newcomer to jump straight into ranked.

The dueling arena expanded, and the live stream room linked directly into the metaverse.

The viewers in the live stream, much like league spectators, took their seats all around the dueling arena.

"Black robe outfit, authenticated as a genuine rookie."

"Nice hairstyle."

"The son-in-law of White Forest? This ID reminds me of an old friend."

"This ID belongs at the same table as 'My Wife is a Siren'."

"How bizarre..." An Xixi looked at the robed figure before her and unfolded her duel disk.

[Courtesy phase ended]
[The player going first is]
[Blue Side]
[Duel start]

"Duel!" (X2)

An Xixi swept her gaze across her starting hand, flashing a confident smile. "Tutorial begins!"

"Watch closely, rookie."

"This is the cutest girl in the world!"

"Summon—"
[The Melodious Maestra Sound Choice Diva]!

A cute young girl wearing a white dress slowly materialized from the summoning array, charming all the onlookers.

This was what they came to see!

"Kukuku, activating [Sound Choice Diva]'s effect..." An Xixi laughed heartily, her voice growing increasingly high-pitched.

"Chain." Li Guanqi didn't even wait for her to finish explaining the effect as he slammed down a card. "[Infinite Impermanence]."

"Negate [Sound Choice Diva]."

An Xixi's smile instantly froze. "Huh?"